Behind the scenes at the Lantern Festival
She hasn’t even got through the 2012 lantern festivals, but already Asia:NZ culture director Jennifer King is thinking about what lanterns she wants for the 2013 celebrations.
That’s both an indication of the planning that goes into the festivals, held in Christchurch and Auckland each year, but also the effort that goes into creating the lanterns, which are largely built by hand. “The lanterns are not knocked off quickly,” said King. “It’s a long, slow slog doing it.”
Since the festival began in 2000, Asia:NZ has gradually built up a large collection of lanterns. Visitors to this year’s Auckland festival would be unlikely to recognise it as the same one as began 12 years ago, which was pieced together from secondhand lanterns from the Jurong Gardens in Singapore.
“That first lantern festival we were pretty thin on the ground with lanterns,” said King. “And also the generator broke down and half of them didn’t light up anyway, but nobody seemed to mind that much – apart from me.”
The festival has grown significantly since then – and what was initially a display consisting largely of simple red lanterns now includes a wide variety of colourful feature lanterns. These include lanterns showing elements of Chinese culture – for example, symbols of good luck such as peonies, ducks and goldfish – to more complex lantern scenes that depict traditional life in China.
“My input into the lantern festival has been that I wanted it to be quite a nostalgic event – so that Chinese might remember what it was like back in China in the old days, maybe when they were children. The lantern festivals in China have become quite commercial these days, with a lot of corporate sponsors and Hello Kitty and cartoon lanterns. I wanted our lanterns to say something about the lovely old traditions of the spring festival (Chinese New Year) in China.”
These include a rural scene showing rice farming, and a depiction of a hutong [a narrow street or alley in Beijing] – complete with a grandmother playing with a child and old men playing chess outdoors.
New lanterns are added to these scenes each year – which is where the planning comes in. Initially, King said she chose lanterns from catalogues, but increasingly she sends sketches and suggestions on to our lantern makers in Zigong, a city in northern China renowned for its lanterns.
“Soon after the festival began, the Chinese Embassy and other people kept telling me that the best lanterns were made in Zigong. So, I got an introduction to Zigong lantern makers, went to Zigong, met them and ordered some lanterns.”
This year’s lanterns come from a variety of sources, and include secondhand lanterns from Foshan, in Guangdong, and from Shanghai’s famous from Yuyuan Gardens. “But,” King said, “the bulk and the best come from Zigong.”
While the lanterns that appear at both festivals now fill 20 shipping containers – perhaps 21 after the latest lanterns are added in – King said the festivals are still small-scale compared with lantern festivals held in China.
“Our lantern-makers are used to doing mega-lantern festivals, where they send people over who install big installation lanterns over several weeks. We’re very small fry.
“We install our own lanterns, and also can’t afford to replace our lanterns every year, so we end up keeping the lanterns for much long than was ever intended.”
Indeed, some of the lanterns from that first festival are still in use. Though they’re “pretty raggedy” at this point, you may need a keen eye to spot them. As King said, “We’ve got very good at rearranging – and we add in new lanterns to refresh the scenes.”
Images:
1. Lantern makers from the Haitian Lantern Factory in Zigong, working on a dragon shield that will appear for the 2012 festivals.
2. The first Auckland lantern festival in 2000.